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Old and Ancient Rye 



By A. OUTRAM SHERMAN 






;v- 







RYE, ENGLAND, IN THE EARLY DAYS. 



OLD AND ANCIENT 

:: RYE :: 



j^n Article Written by 
A^%UTRAM SHERMAN 



Published in The Rye Chronicle of Rye, New York, 1906 
1912 












Westchester Press, Publishers, 
Rye, New York. 



Author 
tCI J, 19/3 



OLD AND ANCIENT RYE 




ACOX points out the error in referring to things that existed 
2^ long ago as ancient. "These times are ancient times when 

the world is ancient, and not those wdiich were accounted 
ancient, ordine retrogrado, l>y a computation backward from 
ours." The most ancient thing must still exist. Could we 
identify a living descendant of the mound builders, then would 
Rome, and perhaps Egypt, have to recognize here an older 
race, and that America was not the N^ew World. But as it is, 
we have only musty bones, scarce distinguishable from the 
surrounding dust, to furnish evidence of an infant race that 
died in the youth of human existence lea\'ing only a hint of its story. 
Such hints and our share of the world itself are our oidA- true anticpiities. 
Heaps of earth, holes in cliffs with broken pottery and grinning skulls 
are all that's ancient, the meagre record of jjerhaps thousands of ^'ears 
of human existence sunk now below the horizon of memory, and since, 
on this continent, until the coming of the European, man ran in primeval 
forests like the brute, the record of one. multiplied by the number of his 
days, giving the whole history of his life, so that 

"History not wanted yet. 
Leaned on her elbow, watching" Time, whose course. 
Eventful, should supply her \\ith a theme." 

Mean\\hile, on the sc~)uthern coast of England, there jutted into 
the channel sea a rocky hill inhabited l)y a hardy race that furnished 
history with a theme eight hundred years or more ago, and ever since. 
Now the dwellers of the hill form only the quiet handet of Rye, but "in 
her glorv's time" Rye was one of the ports that furnished England ships 
and men to win and hold the mastery of the seas. 

Definite written record of this sea girt fortress commenced in the 
middle of the eleventh century, wdien Edward the Confessor granted a 
charter to the Cinque Ports, but back in the fifth century we find that the 

THREE 



() L D A N 1) .\ x\ C I E N 'r R V E 

Romans here on the coast built a fort to repel the Saxons. Thus Ijack 
at the dawn of history in England we must l)eg"in to measure time as 
applied to the name and fame of Rye. 

The inhabitants of Rye were all mariners and for generations the sea 
had almost encompassed their town ; their ships rode at anchor at their 
very doors, but nature, by a curious freak, gradually withdrew the ocean 
until in 1660 its waves beat a mile or more away, beyond a wide expanse 
of marsh. Then it was that some of the more daring spirits of the old 
Town embarked upon the sea and set sail for the new land they had heard 
of to the westward. Here they landed with a love of their English home 
and its traditions in their hearts. They settled by the sea, naming their 
new habitation after their English home and establishing many of the 
customs peculiar to the Cinque Ports ; they bade history awake and a 
new Rye started at the dawn of the new country, as the old Rye had 
commenced with the beginning of the mother country. 

The story of the new, like that of ancient Rye, has been closely inter- 
woven with many of the events of the nation, and the history of the two 
towns as they have existed for the past two hundred and forty-five years 
contains many curious incidents. 

The name Rye was written before the Conquest, Rie, or Rhie, after 
which all records being kept in Latin the name was latinized into Rliia or 
Ria. Jeake, the earliest local historian, who was born in 1623, and was 
town clerk for eleven years, derives the name from the French word Rey, 
meaning a ford, and cites the fact that Queen Elizabeth writes in 1537 of 
"bending towards the Rye" on her way from Relvenden towards Dover. 
This indicated that she would cross the ferry that did then exist near 
Rye. Other local writers favor the theory that the name is derived from 
the French word Rie, a bank of the sea, and certainly the town was on 
such a bank. The derivations are quite similar and the consensus of 
opinion is that Rie, — old French — a bank of the sea, is the most probable. 

The south-eastern coasts of England were always the most vulner- 
able part. In the time of the Romans, here the Saxons made their 
attacks, — here the Danes annoyed the Saxons when, after the departure 
of the Romans, the latter had become masters of the country, and here 
the Normans made their landing when, by the Battle of Hastings near 
Rye, they succeeded the Saxons. Here the Romans in the fifth century 
established five fortresses: Regulbium, Rutupiae. Dover, Linn and 

FOUR 



OLD AND A X C I E X T RYE 

Anderida. These were presided over by the "Count of the Saxon Shore," 
so-called, and were, it is believed, the original Five Ports. Six hundred 
years afterwards, Edward the Confessor incorporated the same number 
of Ports as the "Cinque Ports." Sandwich took the place of Rutupiae; 
Dover remained; Hythe succeeded Lim; Romney and Hastings took the 
places of Regulbium and Anderida, — from the latter the sea having con- 
siderably receded. Embraced with these Cinque Ports and given the 
same privileges and exemptions were "Ye Ancient Towmes of Rye and 
\\'inchelsea." Rye and W'inchelsea were admitted to these privileges 
about one hundred years after the Cinque Ports, but their greater anti- 
quity was recognized by the appellation of the "Ancient Towns" and as 
such they have been designated ever since. 

Edward the Confessor having been brought up in the X^orman Court 
and celebrated for his piety, being canonized after death, gave old Rye 
and W'inchelsea to the Abbott and monks of Fecamp, which was then 
and is still a small seaport on the coast of Xormandy in France, reserving 
to himself only nominal sovereignty, but Henry HI did not relish this 
close connection between Fecamp and Rye, and "resumed into his own 
hands for the better defence of his realm," the two towns, giving the 
abbott and monks in exchange other lands more distant from the channel. 

The Cinque Ports and Ancient Towns, in return for their privileges, 
and exemptions, created and supported alone the entire navy of England 
down to the succession of the Tudors. and partially as late as the reign 
of Charles L That Rye did its full share of this onerous duty appears 
upon the record, and they who built and manned England's navy erected 
the nation and preserved the race. 

When in 141 5 Henry V went to France to capture Harfleur and 
carried back Princess Kate, his bride, whose wooing Shakespeare 
describes so delightfully, the ships of Rye carried most of his army across 
the channel and Henry, being unable to pay the wages of the seamen and 
expenses, left some of his jewels in paw^n \vith the Mayor, Bailiff and 
Comonalty of Rye as security. 

AA'hen Philip II, sent from Spain, then in the zenith of her power, 
the Great Armada, it was from Rye and her sister ports, the valiant few 
went forth that met and shattered that great fleet, the destruction of 
which is believed to have been the most momentous event in history, 
affecting the w^hole course of civilization. 

FIVE 



OLD A N D A X C I E X T RYE 



Queen Elizabeth presented to Rye six l)rass cannon, ornamented 
with the arms of Spain, in recognition of the part the men of Rye bore 
in the great fight with the Armada, and in a ratification of the charters 
of the Cinque Ports she mentions this service: 'AVe, considering the 
o-ood services which the said Barons of the Cinque Ports, and of the towns 
of Rve and Winchelsea and their meml)ers, have done to us, and the 
o-reat charges which they have l)een at in our late service, and elsewhere 




VPRES TOWKR. 

against the Spaniards, in the year of our Lord 1588 and 1596 * * * in 
consideration of the said services and the better maintenance and susten- 
tation of the navy of said ports, we do grant," etc. 

On the edge of a steep rocky clift", at the foot of which flowed the sea 
in former days, when gunpowder and cannon were yet unknown, there 
was built in the reign of King Stephen, in the latter part of the twelfth 
century, by William of Ypres. at Rye, a quadrangular building with a 

SIX 



OLD A X 1) A X C I E X T 



RYE 



round tower at each corner, al)out twenty-tive feet in circumference on 
the outside and fifteen on the inside. This l)uilding still stands. Twice 
has the town been plundered and burned down by the French, once in 
the reign of Richard II and again in the reign of Henry VI. Through 
fire and seven centuries of time, has it remained, and it stands to-day as 
shown in the accompanying picture. It has been a silent witness to men's 
bravery, for three centuries having been used for military purposes and, 
sad to say, it is also a monument to man's inhumanity to man; for within 
its time-defying walls, intolerable tortures were inflicted on ofifenders, 
while for many years it was used as a prison. During this period it was 
called in mockery the "Little Ease," from a punishment then in vogue 
of placing a buskin or kind of legging made of parchment on a prisoner's 




LAXl) CATI-:. 

leg while moist. The prisoner was then l)rought near to the fire and 
the buskin would shrink, scpieezing the limb and causing violent and 
unbearable pain. Other horrors were also inflicted of which a regrettable 
record still exists. 

The Land Gate at Rye is another remarkal)le antiquity which stands 
to-day. It was originally built for a watchtower and gateway and a part 
of the walls of the town. Under its arch Queen Elizabeth once walked. 
It is forty-seven feet high and the towers are of the same dimensions 
inside and out as the Ypres tower. There are two rooms one above the 
other, immediately over the gatCAvay. with two windows facing north 
and two facing south. The clock between the windows was added in 
later years. The gate was built in the reign of Edward III in the twelfth 
century. These two buildings, with the church and monastery, are the 

SEVEN- 



OLD A X D A X C I E X T R V E 

only ones now standing- in Rye that stood through the last destruction 
of the town in 1448. Both these old watch towers stood at the entrance 
of England and the men of Rye, from their protecting masonry, with- 
stood the first attack of enemy after enemy through century after cen- 
tury. Here the first onset against the interests of England was delivered 
and that the Sovereign understood this is apparent from the closing 
words of the ancient customal of Rye. — "L'sed the time of mind which 
men's minds cannot think the contrary. Written in A. D. 1568, being 
the ninth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, — "God Save England and 
the Towne of Rye." 

The gate and tower at Ancient Rye are indeed ancient landmarks 
whose very stones are seamed and worn like the wrinkled l)row^ of age. 
They were built in the reign of Edward III, but there is preserved in the 
Town Hall at Rye a small piece of parchment, not more than twelve 
inches long and three inches wide, on which is written, under date of 
March 28, 1194, in barbarous Latin, intermixed with a little Erench and 
one or two Italian words, a Grant or Charter under the seal of Richard I, 
allowing "Our well-beloved Barons, the Mayor and Commonalty of the 
Town of Rye," to build a wall of stone and lime about the town at their 
own expense. A few crumbling fragments of this wall still exist below 
the "Strand" hill, — perhaps thrown there by Louis the Dauphin of 
F'rance, early in the Thirteenth century when he "captured the town of 
Rye and sailed hence over the seas," according to ancient documents. 
The small piece of parchment is the oldest written record known to exist 
relating to Rye. Authentic record of far earlier times exists but not in 
the original form. Edward I in his Charter, now preserved and bearing- 
date lune 17, I-277, refers to earlier documents thus: "They may have 
their liberties and freedoms from henceforth, as they and their ancestors, 
them at any time better, more fully, and more honorably have had in the 
times of Edward (the Confessor), William I and II, King Henry, our 
great-grandfather, and in the times of King Richard and King John, our 
grandfather, and of the Lord King Henry, our father, kings of England, 
by their Charters, as the same Charters, which the same, our Barons 
thereof have, and we have seen, do reasonably testify." This charter 
granted the people of Rye, it may be interesting and strange to know% 
among other things, the following: 

"All their liberties and freedoms, so that they may be quit of all toll 

EICHT 



OLD AND A N C I E N T 



RYE 



and of all custom — that is to say, of all lastage, tallage, passage, carriage, 
rivage, from pontage and all wreck, and of all their selling, buying and 
rebuying throughout all of our land and domain, with soc and sac and 
thol and them. And that they may have infangthefT and that they may 




THE CHURCH OF OUR I.ADVK. 

be wreck-free and \\'hit-free, lastage-free and lovecope-free. And that 
they may have den and strond at Great Yarmouth."* 

Over three centuries after, on January 20th, 1601, but a brief span 
indeed when coupled with the local history of this venerable town over 

* "r.astage" meant the right to carry two ton weight wherever a man wanted to, without toll. 
"Tallage" meant freedom from certain taxes" levied by J'arliament. "Passage" meant right to pass to 
and fro without tax or being compelled to pay for the passage to and fro of their lord. "Carriage" 
meant freedom from duty in carrying goods through forests or throughout the realm. "Rivage" was 
similar to dockage or duty on entering harbors. "Pontage" meant toll on bridges. "Wrecks" and 
"wreck-free" meant that if their vessels were wrecked ncne of their goods could be seized; if other 
ressels were wrecked on their coast they could seize them. "Soc and sac" related' to the right to sue 
in courts and to impose and receive fines for fighting and bloodshed. "Thol" — freedom from homage 
to any lord but their sovereign lord and king. "Them" signified the powers which the lords had over 
natives, their lands and goods. The lords did not have "Them over the inhabitants of Rye. "Infantheflf" 
was the right to judge and punish a thief taken within their precincts. "Whit-free" was the right when 
declared freemen "in anv court to obtain such record tree of cost. "Lovecot-free" meant liberty of free 
trade or trading for lov'e : and "den and strond at Great ^■armouth"_ meant the liberty the fishermen had 
to dry their nets and their fish on the shore or quays at Great Yarmouth. 

NINE 



O L D A X 1) A X C 1 E X 'f R V E 

which centuries seem to steal unheeded, Oueen Ehzal^eth wrote: 
"Whereas, it appears unto us l)y one record remaining in our Excheciuer, 
among the records of the term of Easter in the six year of the reign of 
our most dear grandfather. King Henry VII * * * under the seals either 
of the towns of W'inchelsea or Rye and of the members of the Eive Ports 
* * * our grandfather was informed, that of old time accustomed" 
(certain taxes were payable) "and whereas divers of the most ancient 
Charters and letters patents made to the Barons of the said Cinque Ports 
in that behalf, as also in the inrolment of same, by length and track of 
long time and many ages, or otherwise, are perished and utterly worn 
out, lost, or decayed," etc., therefore she grants a new charter. 

Besides the Ypres tower and the Landgate. "The Church of Our 
Ladye" or sometimes "St. Mary's" is the other l)uilding in Rye which 
stood through the flames that swept the town in 1448 when the French 
sacked the place, and marks of the fiery ordeal are still distinct on its 
blackened stones, and on its smoked and charred walls. The "common 
seal" of Rye shows on its rex'erse a \'iew of this church as it was first 
built in the twelfth century, which fact is verified by the finding of a stone 
with the date 1191 built into the top of one pillar. The church ^vas 
partially destroyed in 1448 and restored before i 538, but shorn of much 
of its former beauty; for. say ancient historians, it was, "The goodliest 
edifice of that kind in Kent and Sussex, the cathedral excepted," and it 
Avas "a church of wonderful l)eauty." 

From 1538 a register of the ])arish of Rye has been kept and is in 
excellent preservation to this day, with the details of the expenses of the 
church. These records are ((uaint and curious, and the entries show the 
changes from Catholicism to Protestantism. In 1523 we find these 
entries : 

"Alending the i)a\ement before St. John's altar:" "Soldering on 
Saint Catherine:" "1525: Mending our Ladye beside the high altar in 
the chancel." 

Then comes Protestantism in the year 1547: "Paid for taking down 
the irons hanging on St. George:" "Mending and white-liming divers 
places where the images stood:" "Expended for cleansing the church of 
Pojierv : t £ r3s. 4p." 

When Edward VI succeeded his father. Henry VIII, his first step 
was to inill down the high altar and jnit in its place a communion table. 

Ti-:\ 



OLD AND ANCIENT RYE 

The altar had stood imnieniorially in the church at which theretofore in 
all times past the Catholic ceremonies had been celebrated, for King 
Henry, though he dissolved the religious house of Friars Augustine of 
Rye, continued the ceremonies of the Church Catholic. Edward died, 
Mary succeeded her l)rother. and her first step was to set up the high altar 
anew\ At the end of live years her life was terminated ; Elizabeth ascended 
the throne, and after the entry of the amounts paid for drinks for clerks 
of the church we find an item next of, "Paid for labourers, for one day's 
work at the pulling down of the altar and carrying away the rubbish, 3s. 
4p." Again comes the items for books, Bibles, psalm and singing books, 
and scriptural extracts A\hich were painted on the walls. "1560; Paid 
to the painter for writing of the scriptures in the church, i £ lis. 8p." 
and "Do. to Mr. Davidson for taking it out of the Bible and for his pains 
to read it to the painter, is. 8p." "1548, December 26, Paid Alexander 
Wells, jurat, for two Bibles for the church." But evidently the last 
reformers were not trusting each other for they in "1549, June 6th, Paid 
for t\\o chains, one for the Bible, the other for the paraphrase." "Paid 
for mending the Ten Commandments, and for divers other places in the 
Scriptures in the church." This refers to the inscriptions on the walls. 
The commandments were broken this time by the cracking of the walls, 
presumably. 

One entry calls to mind an ancient custom which prevailed in all 
churches in former ages, and wdiich prompted Shakespeare to write 
abo\e his tomb: 

"Good friend, for Jesus" sake forbear 

To dig the dust enclosed here ! 
Blest be the man that spares these stones. 

And curst l)e he that moves my l)ones." 

This custom was the use of a charnel house attached to the church 
and furnished for the purpose of depositing the liones of the dead therein ; 
that is — after the 1)odies of the deceased had lain sufiiciently long in their 
graves for the decomposition of all parts sa\-e the bones, these bones 
were taken from their graves and deposited in the charnel house. In 
1547 is the entrv: "Paid for digging a hole in the churchyard to ])ury 
all the bones that lay in the charnel house, and for making clean the 
liouse and churchyard." 

ELEVEN 



OLD AND ANCIENT RYE 

111 the very earliest ages of the church it was customary to perform 
religious pieces or interludes, the subjects of which were taken from the 
Scriptures, and in 1522 we find that the play of the Resurrection was 
acted at Rye, as it appears from the following entry: "Paid for a coat 
made, when the Resurrection was played at Easter, for him that in play- 
ing represented the part of Almighty God, is." It was the custom in 
St. Mary's to "watch the sepulchre of our Saviour from Good Friday to 
Easter Sunday," as an annual entry in the accounts shows that money 
was paid to the watchers, and l^read and drink furnished for them while 
so employed. 

On November 17, 1558, Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne. In 
January the news reached Rye and the following entry shows the 
"time" they had : "Paid when the Queen was proclaimed to make the 
clerks' drink." 

The church also gave in charity: "Given the Scottish surgeon for 
healing a boy's head, 3s. 4p." 

In the reign of Edward VI it seems that the management of the 
church was given to the representatives in Parliament of the town, and 
the entries bear a striking resemblance to modern graft : "The King's 
attorney for his good will, i £. John Hales for his pains, i £. His 
clerk for his pains, 5s. The clerk of the house for his goodwill. 5s." No 
similar entries to these are shown in any other reign and they occur on 
a single page of the record only. 

On the walls of the church are tablets and quaint inscriptions. The 
inscription to Allen Grel)ell, Esquire, states that "He fell by the cruel 
stab of a sanguine butcher." His murder was a sensation in Rye in the 
Sixteenth Century. The butcher was lying in wait for James Lamb and 
Grebell was killed by mistake. The murderer was hung in irons, and of 
recent years the iron frame with his skull enclosed, was dug up in the 
marsh near Rye and is now preserved in the City Hall. 

To the visitor at this church the most curious and inspiring sight is 
the great weight and pendulum of the clock. This clock, according to a 
legend, was taken from the Spanish Armada and given by Elizabeth to 
the Church; but under date of 1516 is the entry in the records of the 
payment to "The man of Winchelsea, that made the great clock, in full 
payment of his bargain, 6s. 8d." The pendulum, twenty feet in length, 
swings across the nave of the church over the graves in the floor. For 

TWELVE 



U L D A N D A X C I E N T R Y E 

four centuries this long beam has so traveled back and forth before the 
generations of worshipers, as if endowed with strange perpetual life. It's 
solemn took !-tock !-tock ! sounding throughout the vast and empty 
valuted roof, as one stands before it, seems the heart beat of eternity, 
and each stroke a warning of the brevity of human life. It swings from 
a baptismal font on one side to a memorial over a grave on the other, 
and seems to sav : 




THE GRE.\T PENDULUM. 

They bring them to the fJCont 
They take them to the grave : 
A\'hile I, I measure time 
Above them in the nave. 

She comes, a beauteous bride; 
A youth so proudly leads. 
Thev come ! again they come, 
The widow in her weeds. 



THIRTEEN 



OLD AND A N C I E N T R Y E 



Again I see them come 
And carried now is she. 
A young man weeps beside, 
An infant by his knee. 

I only measure time 
That seems to you so slow. 
The generations come ! 
The generations go ! 

But as I measure time 
Above them in the nave, 
There is short span between 
The font so near the grave. 




HAT Rye. New York, was founded by men from Sussex and 
the Cinque Ports, England, there can be no doubt, but these 
settlers, in 1660, though they left numerous crude documents 
signed by their hands in witness of their public deeds and 
acts, so far as known, left no records relating to themselves. 
Thomas and Hachaliah Brown were sons of Thomas Brown, 
whom we know emigrated from Rye, England, in 1632. These 
English Browns were an old and titled family and their line- 
age is of record, but it does not appear by authentic writings 
from what part of England the other settlers came. A glance, 
however, through Halloway's history of Ancient Rye reveals many 
names similar to those found in the pages of Baird's History of American 
Rye: Gapen (or Galpen), Reynold, Threel (or Thaells, "a family of note 
in Sussex in 1609."), Palmer, Guion, Horton, LeStrange, Brown, Sutton, 
Thomas, Wright, Purdy, Newberry and others. 

The first settlement here was on Manursing Island, and was called 
Hastings, after Rye's sister Cinque Port. "There is no reason to doubt 
this," says Baird, "and it is fair to infer that some one at least of the set- 
tlers came from Hastings in Sussex, England. Old names were given 
to new places, in these early days, for reasons very different from those 
which have produced the absurd nomenclature of many of our modern 
towns." 



FOURTEEN 



OLD A X D A X C I E X T RYE 



"The feeling" which prompted this custom is touchingly expressed in 
ithe preamble of an act conferring" the name of X^ew London, in the year 
[657: 'Whereas, it hath bene a commendable practice of ye inhabitants 
)f all the Collonies of these parts that as this Countrey hath its denomi- 
iiation from our dear native Countrey of England, and thence is called 
X,ew England, soe the planters in their first sitling of most new Planta- 
tions have given names to those Plantations of some Cities and Townes 
in I England, thereby intending to keep up and leave to posterity the 
memoriall of severall places of note there, as Boston. Hartford. \\'indsor, 
York. Ipswitch. Brantree, Exeter — This Court," etc. (Public Records 
of the Colony of Conn., prior to 1665, page 313). 

Desbrow^ Coe, and Studwell were original purchasers of land here, 
from the Indians. Peter Desbrow^ was always named first on documents 
and was the leader who sought out the land and negotiated with the 
Indians in 1660. and probably had the naming of the island settlement of 
Hastings, which name was also applied to the southern part of the main- 
land, and it is fair to infer that he is the one who came from that Cinque 
Port. 

Four years later the Browns of Ancient Rye arrived and Hachaliah 
built his house on the mainland and it w^as named Rye in his and his 
Ijrother Thomas's honor. John Budd was associated with the very 
earliest settlers and was a wealthy man. Baird says he married Kather- 

ine (last name unknown) but Colonel John Budd. of Xew^ Jersey, 

his great grandson, claims that he married Katharine Brow-n, a sister of 
Hachaliah. at Rye, England, and being, as he was, deputy to the General 
Court had the name Rye adopted. 

This may be true but no mention of Budd appears in the records of 
freeman or inhabitant of ancient Rye. It is interesting to note that 
the Budds settled in Xew Jersey in a county called Sussex, and Dover is 
near Budd lake, settled by the family, so that, doubtless, the Cinque Ports 
were the source from wdiich the Jersey families came. 

Xot only did these mariners of England bring hither their family 
names, but localities and roads were named for their old homes. Armonk, 
the Indians had called the river extending north from the rocky point on 
the north side of Rye Port Harbor, but Thomas Brown of ancient Rye 
owned seven lots on its banks, and to Thomas and his people the river 
became the Byram. and the point Byram Rock. \Vas it not so named 

FIFTEEN 



OLD A N D A N C I E N T R Y E 



because 'Svhen a storm was from the south-east on the English channel 
vessels often ran against a rock among the Barham rocks in the harbor" 
at Rye, and the "Strand Ferry" was near the Barham rocks, of England, 
and the Rye ferry started from Horse rock, just west of the Byram rocks? 
Baird says the creek has always been known as "The Gut," and Henry 
HI, in his document redeeming Rye from the Monks of Fishcamp, de- 
scribing the town, says : "a certain Gut goes through the middle of 
Colemarsh into the sea." Near the Gut, King Henry says, was all 
Blykeshull. near a place called Dead man's Lane. At the mouth of our 
Gut was Burying Hill, and from Burying Hill the oldest road, called 
Love Lane, ran to the mill stream. In 1738 Rye town records in Eng- 
land state that "A committee was appointed to contract for repairing the 
road leading to the town marshes called Dead man's Lane" which led 
into Love Lane, which ran from thence to the mill stream. In both 
towns not only do these ancient roads bearing the same name run 
between similar points, but the records in both places are full of the 
difficulties the authorities had over the public rights and gates on Love 
Lane. In England it was "Resolved in 181 7, that the chamberlin take 
up the carriage-gate at the end of Love Lane and put down a horse-gate 
only" unless certain tenants shall consent to pay an annual sum to the 
corporation for passing that way with wagons. The corporation owned 
the marshes at the end of the road. In our Rye in 1765 the Highway 
Commissioners upon complaint made to them by a considerable number 
of inhabitants in Rye, for a road leading to Lyon mill towards the Gut 
(Lo^■e Lane), ordered the "gate erected on said road to the Gut and Bury- 
ing hill to be taken down." At the foot of the hill, near Dead Man's Lane, 
in old Rye, is a place where criminals were hanged, and the hill bore the 
cheerful name of "Gallows Bank." It stood in a position relative to 
Burying Hill at our beach, which has been alleged to have been so named 
because the Indians might have buried their dead there, but no evidence 
of such burials has ever been discovered. 

Through many dark and eventful years Rye, England, sheltered a 
large community of smugglers. Almost every old house in the town has 
its secret trap doors, passages, panels and cupboards, used by these law- 
less men. ^vhen fleeing or hiding from the pursuing Government officials. 
In many of these places they also stored away their contral^and posses- 
sions. John Wesley, in his diary, dated November, 1773, says: — "I set 

SI XT KEY 



O L 1) 



A X J) A X C 1 E X 'J^ R Y E 



out for Sussex, and found al)undance of people willing to hear the good 
Word, at Rye in particular, ar d they do many things gladly, but they 
\\vill not part with the accursed zhing — smuggling — so I fear, with regard 
\o these, our labours will be in vain." Five years afterwards he visited 
the town and says: — "How large a Society would be here, could we but 
spare them in one thing, nay, but then all our labours would be in vain, 
one sin allowed would intercept the whole blessing." A story is told that 
about lOO years ago. a large cargo of contraband spirits was landed early 




MRRMAID STREET. 

one Sunday morning near Camber. The Custom House officers were on 
the alert. The smugglers got their possessions as far as Guldeford, but 
finding it was dangerous to proceed further, got, by some means, the 
Church key, and deposited safely the goods within the sacred edifice. 
The clerk then w^ent to the minister, and promised him two of the tubs 
if he would keep silence. In a short time the news was spread about 
that there would be no service that day, in consequence of the indisposi- 
tion of the minister. On the Monday evening the cargo was safely con- 

SEVENTEEN 



OLD A x\ D A N C I E N T R Y E 

veyed to Rye, "except two tubs for the minister, and two for the clerk.'" 

One of the quaint streets in Rye is Mermaid street, which John 
Wesley says in his diary was "near as steep as the ridge of a house." On 
this street stands the old Mermaid's Inn, which was built with special 
accommodations for its smuggler patrons, and convenient passages for 
escape were provided, and there is still a secret passage under the roof 
and hidden panels which swing like a door. Its oak wainscot is beauti- 
fully carved. The two roses appear, mementoes of the battle of Hast- 
ings. The fire place in the main room extends the whole width of the 
room. Ellen Terry tried to purchase one of the carved doors of this inn, 
offering $500 therefor, but fortunately local pride preserved the building 
intact. 

Fletcher, the dramatist, who wq-ote in conjunction with Beaumont, 
w^as born in Rye in 1579, his father having been at this time vicar of the 
parish. The last sea service performed by the Cincjue Ports, by virtue 
of their charters was during the war of 1814. The number taken from 
Rye w^as sixteen, but substitutes were paid for by many of the inhabi- 
tants, and it is not impossible that men from old Rye were among crews 
who fought some of our townsmen in that war. 

Halloway in his history says (p. 352) : "Speaking of the military 
defences of Rye, we may here remark as connected with warlike matters, 
that in 1775 commenced the unhappy differences between England and 
her American colonies, on which occasion the government was unfortu- 
nately encouraged in the prosecution of the w^ar by addresses from many 
corporations, and among these from that of Rye, in which they assured 
His Majesty, George III, that he had, in their judgment, done his utmost 
to reconcile the unhappy troubles and disputes now subsisting in His 
Majesty's colonies in America. 

One of the fruits of this war was the raising of a corps of volunteers 
in the Cinque Ports, for which Rye was to find eighteen men. ^fhe 
corporation and the inhabitants subscribed 116 £, os. 6d. Tlie local 
warden and the town of Rye paid together a bounty of twelve guineas 
to each volunteer. This occurred in 1778. and in the same year an order 
was issued to prove the brass cannon and have new carriages made for 
them." 

Oueen Eliza1)eth had given the town these cannon, which had l)een 
captured from the Spanish Armada. They were five in number, curi- 



EIGIITEKN 



O L D A X D A X C T E X T RYE 

oiisly ornamented with the arms of Spain and had long stood on the 
pubHc g'reen of Rye as ornaments. 

At the same time the settlers here were "proving" their long flint- 
locks in readiness to greet with death expected l)rothers but now deadly 
foes. Let us hope that in the Old and in the Ancient Rve, and in all 
other parts of the related lands, no such enthusiasm for war will ever 
again arise. It is sad indeed that communities having so many things in 
common must forget them all and go to war over what either could 
account a few unha])]))' misunderstandings. 

I<"rom the time of King Ed^^•ard the Confessor, in 1050. through 
man\' centuries, the .\ncient Town of Rye and Hastings among the 
Cin(|ue I'orts formed the nucleus of the King's offensive and defensive 
power, d'he Barons of the Cinque Ports thus became and have ever 
since been regarded as the founders of the King's X'avy and in recogni- 
tion of the services rendered them and their ancestors, the Kings and 
Queens of the realm have at their coronation required of the Barons 
certain duties and conferred upon them certain rights. These rights 
included man}- pri^■ileges and liberties not enjoyed by other localities. 
• The}' were set forth in writing and zealously guarded by the inhabitants 
of the Ports. 

A number of the early settlers of our town came from the Ancient 
Town of R}'e and Hastings and this settlement, as stated, was first called 
Hastings and R}-e. dliese settlers brought with them their strong desire 
for libert}' and a number of their early acts and customs were imported 
l)v them. They established a "trained band," similar in name and pur- 
pose to the guard long maintained at their home. Their admission of 
free men or persons to citizenshi]) was also regulated after the manner of 
their particular English custom, and their old connection with the X^avy 
was shown In' their reservation in their petition for a charter excepting 
all timber suital)le for shi|)s for the Xavy froni the grant asked. 

The ]3resent inhabitants of Rye in England are proud of the history 
of their ancestors and their perseverance in maintaining their liberties. 

d1ie rights that their Barons asserted at the coronation of each new 
king was an instance of their watchfulness and care in the protection of 
the interests and lil:)erties of the Ports. 

The custom for a century or more has been Init a holiday pageantry, 

XIXKTEEN 



(3 L D .\ X D A N C I E N T R \^ E 







luH^ \|)\_M>, AJ.WOK ur l\\ L, ENGLAND 
Robes Worn at Coronation 



TWENTY 



OLD A X D A X C I E X T RYE 

yet \vhen it was a serious and important e\ent our ancestors, as well as 
onr English cousins, profited by its performance. 

The accompanying" picture shows the present ■Mayor of Rye in Eng- 
land dressed in the uniform of a Baron of the Cinque Ports which he 
wore at Westminister at the coronation of King Cieorge V. A copy of 
the picture, showing the colors of the uniform, hangs in the Scjuare House 
in Rye, X'^e\\- York. 

The terrible persecution of the French Protestants drove from 
France man}' of its best and most useful citizens. "Dieppe, in X'^ormandy, 
being specially favored by its situation on the British Channel, within a 
few hours' sail of the southern shores of England, witnessed the exodus 
(in 1580) of nearl}' its entire Protestant i^opulation. Its Huguenot 
church Avith the pastors passed over almost in a body to Rye, in Sussex." 
The Huguenots were a \'aluable acquisition to the countries to which 
they came, and the story of their flight and adventures is full of romance 
and pathos. A liberal and enlightened people, their charitable and noble 
forgiveness of cruel enemies reflect the superiority of their manhood. 
England welcomed them and was well repaid. Her tolerance in regard 
to their religious observances won some over to tlie established church, 
but the Pres])yterian Church was vastly promoted by their membership. 

In his history of "The Huguenot Emigration to America," Dr. Baird 
writes that these persecuted Presbyterians sought, many of them, a brief 
refuge in England and came thence to America. He gives in detail the 
story of many of the French Protestant families that settled hereabouts 
and worshipped with the Rye congregation, and there is also proof that 
the same refugees who crossed the channel "were permitted, it is said, to 
perform divine worship in the parish church in Rye (England) in the 
intervals of the English service." The Presbyterian Church at Rye in 
Xew York was presented recently by one of its generous members with 
a new doorway. The Huguenot association between the two Ryes sug- 
gested the motive in the design adopted for the overdoor. This seemed 
especiallv appropriate as Dr. Baird, the author of the History of the 
Huguenots in America and the History of Rye, Xew York, had for many 
years adorned the pulpit of this church, and who, as was written at the 
time, when called to minister to the needs of the present, and to prepare 
the wav and guide the people to an unknown future, took also upon him- 
self to rescue the dim past and to save from a ])ossible oblivion, the 

TWENTY-ONE 



OLD AND ANCIENT R ^^ E 

records of the achievements of his predecessors and to preserve for pos- 
terity the memory of the good that belonged to others. 

This doorway to his beloved sanctnary might well be made com- 
memorative, if not of Dr. Baird, of his thoughts; and in the lasting stone 
be cut in symbolic form a part of the story his loving labor saved for us, 
when he foiled the effacing hand of time that would soon have erased 
"the few remaining vestiges of olden days." In the central figure of the 




OBVKRSR 



design therefore, is the old land gate of the English Rye that has stood 
for upwards of seven hundred years. Beyond and behind it is depicted 
the spire of St. Mary's Church and coming through the gate into the 
immediate foreground is a l^and of Huguenots. On the two shields 
immediately above the gate is shown the old seal of the Ancient Town; 
on the obverse of this seal is a ship with banners of the cross of St. 
George; on the reverse is represented, "The Church of Our Ladye," St. 

T\VI':XTVTWO 



OLD A X D A N C I E N T RYE 

Mary's. The Virgin stands with the infant Jesus in a niche. The sun 
and seven stars appear on the east ; the moon in her crescent with seven 
stars on the west side of the spire. The church is represented as stand- 
ing within an embattled w^all or boat and around the seal is the Angelical 
Salutation "Ave IMaria gratis plena Deus tecum benedicta tu in 
mulieribus." (Hail Mary! the grace of God be with you! blessed art 
thou among women!). 




kk\'i:ksi:. 



"Seals w^ere not used in England, bearing arms, before the Conquest 
of 1066; how soon after this the Cinque Ports had the privilege of a public 
seal, does not appear; but at wdiatever previous period these Ports had 
them, it is clear the two ancient towns of Winchelsea and Rye could not 
possess them before the reign of King John, who is said to have given 
them their privileges, and which commenced in 1199 and ended in 12 16; 
and thus, ns the original of the present church in English Rye is supposed 

TWENTY-THREE 



OLD A X I) A X C I E N T RYE 



to have been built before the end of the twelfth century, the seal may 
fairly be considered to bear a true representation of it." The oldest 
impression which exists of this seal is a mutilated one on a document of 




DOORWAY TO RYP: PRESRYTKRIAX CHURCH 

the date 1430; a deed entitled. "A Composition of the Seven Towns," 
dated 1392, probably bore the seal of Rye, but only three of the seven 
seals are yet discernible. 

TWENTY-FOUR 



OLD A X D A X C I E X T R Y E 

The English church as it stands today is represented on the lower 
extreme left shield; its nave and choir, with the wings of the latter being 
in the early English style of architecture which prevailed from A. D. 
I200 to A. D. 1300. establishes the date of the building of the church as 
during that period. As stated, the Huguenots worshipped here and a 
glance through the history of the English Rye discloses a surprising 
number of names similar to those borne by families in this community. 
In the church record appear the names of Guion, Gapen, Reynolds, 
Thomas, Thriell or Theall, F'almer, Gilbert. Harrison, Purdy, Horton, 




fHKlSrS tUURCH, k\ K. XKW YORK 

Brown, \\ right, Sutton, Xewberry, Harvey, Barham, Archer, Bird, 
LeStrange and Walton. The Budds were from the vicinity of Rye and 
were French Huguenots. 

On the other lower shields are represented three of the Presbyterian 
Church buildings that have been built in Rye, New York. The first was 
built in 1729, on a plot of ground called "Pulpit Plain." 

On the wonderful masonry of ancient churches, legendary knights 
are depicted in combat with fabulous dragons, and mythical saints are 
shown performing imaginary miracles, but on this modern building has 

TWENTY-FIVE 



OLD A X D A X C I E X T R Y E 

been illustrated the real accomplishments of men, a true story of the ages 
and the results of time, real yet romantic, it proves that no departure 
from truth is necessary to produce the beautiful or suggest the sublime. 

The Episcopal Church in Rye, Xew York, is one of the oldest par- 
ishes in the United States. It possesses a silver communion service 
presented to it by Queen Anne. 

The first contribution made by Trinity in Xew York in aid of another 




PKESBVTKKIAX CriURCH, RVK, NEW YORK 



parish was a gift in 1745 to the R\'e church, then known as "Grace 
Church." After it had borne this name for more than a hundred years 
it was changed to "Christ's Church." The old name is still continued 
in the designation of the street beginning at the church building, which 
is still called Grace Church Street. 

The present graceful building was erected in 1855, fire having de- 
stroyed a former edifice. The church parish began its existence in 1670, 

TWENTY-SIX 



OLD AND A X C I E N T RYE 

which seems indeed an ancient date in old Rye, but St. Mary's in the 
Ancient Towne has seen a century roll by for every generation that has 
been counted here. 

Let us hope that the friendship between the Old and the Ancient 
Rye and their nations may, like the cement that binds the stones of the 
latter's venerable walls, strengthen with time and exist forever. 



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